Author: Carl

Was recruited back in the first year of high school to play this odd game called Dungeons & Dragons by his friends who would become his family. Tending more towards darker themed games like Call of Cthulhu, Ravenloft, Gemini and other such titles; he has also ventured into other genres as his interest has developed. If there is something cool to play out there, he will play it even if it hurts his brain.

This totally flew under my radar but now having found it I cannot help but wish this wasn’t just a mini series and that the episodes were longer. Each episode is about 5 min and filled with awesome. Enjoy

Finally I managed to get a first edition copy of DC Universe Rebirth. After reading some of the new number 1’s I was eagerly anticipating reading what led to all this. Now I previously talked about how Rebirth is DC’s mea culpa to alienating readers who loved the old universe before the Flashpoint event but this is really the start of something hopefully for the better.

After reading the issue and absorbing all the little details I cannot be more excited. I am perhaps a little overly optimistic but my fingers are crossed that things go back mostly to the DC I knew and loved. Now it’s not to say the New 52 was all bad, there were standout titles such as Swamp Thing and Animal Man; but after reading this issue and reading reviews online I cannot help to agree with the major point everyone seem’s to agree on. The New 52 missed love.

It seem’s silly saying it but what made DC great was the relationships between their heroes. There was a genuine friendship between them that was tangible. New 52 seemed to be heavily inspired by Christopher Nolan’s Batman trend of grit. Characters were more gritty, angst and with more attitude. For characters like Superman this didn’t rub off very well. Not to mention they threw out the history with Lois. Now while I am sure some people would accept changes between those two such as a divorce, a complete write off pissed a lot of people off.

They seem to have delivered though and kudos to the staff at DC for this epic start. We have Wally and Barry embrace after all these years, we have The Watchmen who are now merged with the DC Universe. It was hard to imagine but giving myself ample time to reflect on it I can see a lot of cool stuff coming out of this. Watchmen has been kind of a sacred cow so it will be interesting to see how it goes. It’s definitely a bold move.

It was also nice to see all the reference to the Justice Society, Titans and The Legionnaires. I wonder if we will eventually get series based on them. I am hoping for a JSA series myself.

In all honesty though, Rebirth is a great start. The art is solid and the writing is well done. You don’t ever feel like you missed anything so it’s definitely a good starting point for readers to get into the DC Universe. It will appeal to the newer fans as well as the older fans as characters from both iterations are featured. I am sure it will bring in even some more new readers as well since the hype train seems to be going full steam ahead. I am hoping that the following Rebirth titles continue this awesome vibe that is happening.

In all I cannot recommend this title enough. We will have to wait and see if this is indeed the universe we are all hoping for but for me at least I feel like I got our heroes back.

When I was a wee lad, I started slowly collecting comics but first I was into card collecting. Mostly I had sports cards but I remember getting a
hold of these DC Cosmic Cards in the great 1992. I recently cleared out a lot of cards that I collected because they were of no value and not what I was into anymore. Sports? What’s that?

Looking back on DC Cosmic Cards I remembered the appeal of them. You have heroes and villain all there. You had pictures of major events with little bio’s behind the cards. You also had trivia questions included which was pretty cool so you could see who had their comic street cred. The art is hit and miss. Obviously they didn’t have the production values of today but for it’s time was ok.

I really learned a lot about the personalities of the DC Universe through this and also appreciated the vintage look of our favorite heroes. It really opened up a door and I wish that these types of cards were more accessible to people. It’s fun to collect, entices people to pick up comics and teaches about the history of the industry at the same time. I don’t think you can go wrong with that.

Update: If you want to look at all the cards with both sides displayed, The Trading Card Database has them all there for your viewing pleasure.

I have been going through all my comic books lately to see what I have. I have two collections really. One is when I was a teenager – adult and all is bagged, boarded and in great shape. Then there is when I was really young where taking care of a comic was a bit secondary to it’s enjoyment and the thought of collect collecting vs the sake of value was not really there.

I managed to find two little gems. First is Ninja Turtles # 1 which is still in great shape surprisingly and the other is Star Lord # 1. Yes that Star Lord and from the 70’s. The rear cover has a tear in it, not huge but it’s still a tear. Apparently this thing is also worth quite. I am go pick up some bags and board so I can protect these comics along with others I found. Might send Star Lord to get a proper evaluation. Even if it was worth half of what these auctions go for I’m still a happy camper considering this was free back in the day. I also found some other vintage stuff which I will talk about later.